Shaka Upgrade Guide, v2.3 => v2.5

This is a detailed guide for upgrading from Shaka Player v2.3 to v2.5. Feel free to skim or to search for the class and method names you are using in your application.

What's New in v2.5?

Shaka v2.5 introduces several improvements over v2.3, including:

An official Shaka Player UI library to provide customizable and styleable video controls
- Load dist/shaka-player.ui.js
- See tutorial in docs/tutorials/ui.md
Complete redesign of the demo app
FairPlay support
Native HLS support on iOS and Safari
Support for single-file playback
Network requests can be aborted when switching streams
Partial support for SMPTE-TT subtitles
Improved service worker in demo app PWA
Drift tolerance for live DASH streams (on by default)
PlayReady license URL parsing (ms:laurl)
Support for CEA captions
New config field to ignore manifest minBufferTime
Offline storage without a Player instance
A safe margin parameter was added for clearing the buffer
Widevine SAMPLE-AES support in HLS
Support for TTML and VTT regions
A video element is no longer required when Player is constructed
New attach() and detach() methods have been added to Player to manage attachment to video elements
Fetch is now preferred over XHR when available
Live stream playback can begin at a negative offset from the live edge

Extern namespace change

If you use the Closure Compiler in your own project, you need to know that v2.5 changes the namespace for our externs, such as plugin interfaces and manifest types. The namespace has changed from shakaExtern to shaka.extern. You MUST update any references to shakaExtern.

// v2.3:
/**
 * @param {shaka.net.NetworkingEngine.RequestType} type
 * @param {shakaExtern.Request} request
 * @return {!Promise}
 */
function myFilter(type, request) { /* ... */ }

// v2.5:
/**
 * @param {shaka.net.NetworkingEngine.RequestType} type
 * @param {shaka.extern.Request} request
 * @return {!Promise}
 */
function myFilter(type, request) { /* ... */ }

Factory parameter change

The optional Factory parameter in Player.load() and Storage.store() has been changed to a MIME type string. The Factory parameter is now deprecated and will be removed in v3.0. Applications SHOULD update to use MIME types instead of explicit factories. Any registered factory can be referenced by its registered MIME type.

// v2.3:
player.load('foo.mpd', /* startTime= */ 0,
    /* factory= */ shaka.dash.DashParser);

// v2.5:
player.load('foo.mpd', /* startTime= */ 0,
    /* mimeType= */ 'application/dash+xml');

See shaka.Player#load for details.

Manifest URI API change

The method Player.getManifestUri() has been renamed to Player.getAssetUri(). The older method is now deprecated and will be removed in v3.0. Applications SHOULD update to the new method, whose name more accurately reflects our new support for non-manifest content.

// v2.3:
const uri = player.getManifestUri();

// v2.5:
const uri = player.getAssetUri();

Text parser plugin API changes

The TextParser plugin API has changed.

The segmentStart attribute of shakaExtern.TextParser.TimeContext is now nullable. Your plugin will receive a segmentStart of null if the information is not available, as is the case in HLS.

Text-parsing plugins that produce region information will need to be updated to use the new shaka.text.CueRegion class. The new structure allows for more accurate representation of both TTML and VTT regions.

All application-specific text-parsing plugins MUST to be updated. v2.5 does not have backward compatibility for this!

See shaka.extern.TextParser.TimeContext and shaka.text.CueRegion for details.

TextDisplayer plugin API changes

The Cue objects consumed by TextDisplayer have changed in v2.5.

CueRegion structure has changed to allow for more accurate representation of both TTML and VTT regions
Cue.writingDirection has been split into Cue.writingMode and Cue.direction to fix bugs in the handling of these attributes
Cue.backgroundImage has been added

All application-specific TextDisplayer plugins MUST to be updated. v2.5 does not have backward compatibility for this!

See shaka.extern.Cue and shaka.extern.CueRegion for details.

NetworkingEngine API changes

In v2.3, the request() method on shaka.net.NetworkingEngine returned a Promise. Now, in v2.5, it returns an instance of shakaExtern.IAbortableOperation, which contains a Promise.

All applications which make application-level requests via NetworkingEngine MUST update to the new API. Support for the old API was removed in v2.5.

// v2.3:
const response = await player.getNetworkingEngine().request(type, request);

// v2.5:
const operation = player.getNetworkingEngine().request(type, request);
// The operation can also be aborted on some condition.
onSomeCondition(() => {
  operation.abort();
});
// Use operation.promise to get the response.
const response = await operation.promise;

Network scheme plugin changes

In v2.4, we changed the API for network scheme plugins.

These plugins now return an instance of shakaExtern.IAbortableOperation. We suggest using the utility shaka.util.AbortableOperation for convenience.

We also introduced an additional parameter for network scheme plugins to identify the request type.

All applications which have application-level network scheme plugins MUST update to the new API. Support for the old API was removed in v2.5.

In v2.5, we added another new parameter to network scheme plugins to allow plugins to provide progress events. This callback is only provided to your plugin for segment requests, so you must handle the case where this is not provided. If you ignore this callback, the bandwidth estimate will take longer to converge and StreamingEngine will be unable to abort a request early to switch to a better stream. Applications SHOULD update their custom network scheme plugins to provide progress events if feasible.

// v2.3:
function mySchemePlugin(uri, request) {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    // ...
  });
}
shaka.net.NetworkingEngine.registerScheme('foo', mySchemePlugin);

// v2.5:
function mySchemePlugin(uri, request, requestType) {
  let rejectCallback = null;

  const promise = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    rejectCallback = reject;

    // Use this if you have a need for it.  Ignore it otherwise.
    if (requestType == shaka.net.NetworkingEngine.RequestType.MANIFEST) {
      // ...
    } else {
      // ...
    }

    // ...
  });

  const abort = () => {
    // Abort the operation.
    // ...

    // Reject the Promise.
    rejectCallback(new shaka.util.Error(
        shaka.util.Error.Severity.RECOVERABLE,
        shaka.util.Error.Category.NETWORK,
        shaka.util.Error.Code.OPERATION_ABORTED));
  };

  return new shaka.util.AbortableOperation(promise, abort);
}
shaka.net.NetworkingEngine.registerScheme('foo', mySchemePlugin);

// v2.5:
function mySchemePlugin(uri, request, requestType, progressUpdated) {
  /// ...

    if (progressUpdated) {
      progressUpdated(/* timeElapsedMilliseconds= */ currentTime - lastTime,
                      /* bytesLoaded= */, loaded - lastLoaded,
                      /* byteRemaining= */, contentLength - loaded);
      lastTime = currentTime;
      lastLoaded = loaded;
    }

  /// ...
}
shaka.net.NetworkingEngine.registerScheme('foo', mySchemePlugin);

See shaka.extern.ProgressUpdated and shaka.extern.SchemePlugin for details.

Network filter changes

A new request type has been introduced: shaka.net.NetworkingEngine.RequestType.TIMING. This is used for time sync requests in the DASH parser. Previously, these requests used the type MANIFEST. Applications which look for specific request types in a filter MAY use this information if desired.

NetworkingEngine changes

In v2.3, the request() method on shaka.net.NetworkingEngine returned a Promise. In v2.5, it returns an implementation of IAbortableOperation.<shaka.extern.Response>, which contains a Promise.

All applications which make application-level requests via NetworkingEngine MUST update to the new API. The old API was removed in v2.5.

// v2.3:
const response = await player.getNetworkingEngine().request(type, request);

// v2.5:
const operation = player.getNetworkingEngine().request(type, request);
// The operation can also be aborted on some condition.
onSomeCondition(() => {
  operation.abort();
});
// Use operation.promise to get the response.
const response = await operation.promise;

See shaka.net.NetworkingEngine for details.

Offline storage changes

In v2.5, shaka.offline.Storage.configure() now takes a complete Player configuration object instead of a separate one. The fields that were previously part of the Storage config (trackSelectionCallback, progressCallback, and usePersistentLicense) have been moved inside the offline field. The old field locations are now deprecated and will be removed in v3.0. Applications SHOULD update to use the new field locations.

// v2.4:
storage.configure({
  trackSelectionCallback: myTrackSelectionCallback,
});

// v2.5:
const storage = new shaka.offline.Storage();
storage.configure({
  offline: {
    trackSelectionCallback: myTrackSelectionCallback,
  },
});

// OR use shared Player configuration:
const storage = new shaka.offline.Storage(player);
player.configure({
  offline: {
    trackSelectionCallback: myTrackSelectionCallback,
  },
});

// OR use shared Player configuration and two-argument configure():
const storage = new shaka.offline.Storage(player);
player.configure('offline.trackSelectionCallback', myTrackSelectionCallback);

A new method has been introduced to allow an application to clean up and release any offline EME sessions that were not cleanly released: Storage.removeEmeSessions(). Applications MAY use this if desired.

See shaka.offline.Storage for details.

Manifest parser plugin API changes

The API for shaka.media.PresentationTimeline has changed. ManifestParser plugins that use these methods MUST be updated:

setAvailabilityStart() was renamed to setUserSeekStart().
notifySegments() now takes a reference array and a boolean called isFirstPeriod, instead of a period start time and a reference array.

// v2.3:
timeline.setAvailabilityStart(100);
timeline.notifySegments(segmentList, /* periodStart= */ 0);

// v2.5:
timeline.setUserSeekStart(100);
timeline.notifySegments(segmentList, /* isFirstPeriod= */ true);